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Idolatry (Part 4)
● What becomes apparent throughout the story of God and creation is that we
all come from a very long line of “dysfunctionality”.
● All of us have these tendencies, this propensity to seek fulfillment apart
from/in something other than God. They displace God’s love as the source of
our deepest desires.
These pursuits get the best of us: the best of our time, our energy,
our budget, our heart… leaving us little resources for others.
The good news is that no one you have ever met or no one seated close to you
today is free of such tendencies and is currently experiencing the
wholeness.
● It reinforces the idea previously presented that most of the wounds that
humanity experiences are “self-inflicted”. Meaning, we are capable of
wreaking incredible havoc upon our own lives and upon the lives of others…
but
all under the guise of freedom.
● Paul understood humanity’s dilemma as
“idolatry”…
“…worshipping and serving created
things rather than the Creator--- who is forever praised” (Romans 1:25).
The Bible doesn’t consider idolatry to be “one sin” among many
(or, unique to primitive people and
something that more progressive cultures have now outgrown). All sin is
rooted in idolatry… making something other than God central or of ultimate
concern for life.
● Those episodes may be short-lived or indicative of our lifestyle, but they
are all idolatrous in nature. It’s why we were encouraged last week to
address the issues when they first get our attention.
1 John 5:21 “Dear children, keep
yourselves from idols.” (“…keep
away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” NLT)
John has just finished an exposition of a life lived in vital union
with Jesus. How can this verse be offered as some form of summation? (“Oh,
yeah… keep away from idols.”)
In actuality, it is indicative of life’s most basic question:
“Has something other than God
captured your heart and merited your trust and service?”
“Who or what rules you?”
The unattractive answer to that question is depicted in 2:15-17, 3:7-10,
4:1-6 and 5:19.
● The Bible never minimizes or makes light of our dilemma. In fact, it fixes
it in the context of a
“struggle” (Ephesians 6:12;
Hebrews 12:4), a
“warring” (2 Corinthians
10:3; 1 Peter 2:11), a
“life or death”, “blessing or
cursing” proposition.
● Paul advises us of the perpetual nature of this struggle in Galatians 4:19
when he said that his objective was to
be committed to them “until
Christ is formed in you…”
Interestingly, Paul never offers that as achievable apart from
divine-intervention or attainable within a fixed time-frame (“Give us a week
and we’ll take off the weight!”)
● Notice the inextricable link between
“worship” and “service”.
Whatever we value, attach worth to, we will ultimately attend to.
Because we are all covenantal people (created to worship), it then becomes a
distortion of divine-order. Instead of loving God and ruling over his
creation, we actually attach our hearts to created things which
enslave/rule-over us.
Deut.4:39 “The Lord is God in heaven
above and on the earth below. There is no other”.
Deut.10:17 “The Lord your God is God
of gods and Lord of lords, the great God”.
When we speak of ‘gods’ in the Scripture, is that paradoxical given that the
story continuously declares that there is only one God?
So, if the gods are not God, and yet they are something, what are they?
We must say, then, at least (4) things:
First,
they are really nothing in terms of any divine claims that they make. There
is only one who can rightfully claim that place, the Creator-God of the
universe.
Second,
they are something in relation to the person who worships them.
gods have real influence in the
lives of those who treat them like gods.
Third,
we must affirm that both the OT and NT suggest that the ‘gods’ may represent
a demonic order. While the Scriptures recognize the presence and power of
spiritual forces behind the gods and idols, the OT much more frequently
describes the idols as the
“work of human hands” (Psalm
115:4-8; Hosea 8:4, 6; Habakkuk 2;18, 19) meaning, we create our own gods,
which, in turn, underscores the absurdity of worshipping them.
Fourth,
it’s not about the object itself, but the
authority that we attribute to them; we submit to and serve something other
than God.
The ancient cultures believed that what they could see, feel and touch was
not “self-explanatory”. There was something else going on. There were powers
behind the created things. For the worshipper, the image merely symbolized
the power behind it.
“For he who makes it trusts in his own creation…”
Habakkuk 2:18
● So, when we say,
“Are the other gods really demonic or
are they purely the product of our own imaginations and construction?”
The answer is “yes”.
Clearly, whatever the gods
are, we seem to always be going after them.
We are often quite self-deceived about what really rules us.
We have, in place, such elaborate systems all meant to preserve our
comfort and avoid the messy prospect of inner-examination.
The continued denial causes us to actually create an alternate
reality… “a lie”, and we become “delusional” (holding onto a false belief
despite the indisputable evidence to the contrary).
● Having refused to worship God (initiates the chaos),
“… their thinking became futile
(worthless) and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).
● Literally means that as they attempted to
“deliberate about what is true”,
they could no longer discern because their hearts were
“deprived of light”. And, they
became “fools” (Gr. “moros”- where we get our word “moron”. Also a word used
to describe salt that had lost its savor…it could no longer fulfill its
creative function).
● In 1 Timothy 4:2, Paul describes the result of our hypocrisy as having our
“conscience seared as with a branding
iron”. And, in Ephesians 4:19, he says that our hearts become “callous”…
insensible to pain; unfeeling.
Our choices at this point? Isolation or hypocrisy: both are good covers for
a disorderly heart.
At this point, increased energy must be directed toward the
“suppression of truth”
(personally) and the masking of truth relationally.
In essence, you are hiding from
yourself and others!
Characteristics?
-
You’re the last one to know (or, the last one willing to admit it). Even
when the other finally addresses the issue, it’s hard not to respond with a,
“Duh…”, or,
“No, really?”)
-
You need to keep yourself perpetually occupied in order to avoid the
silence; you can’t be alone.
-
Excessive rationalization: a willingness to admit the behavior, but not
abandon it.
We invest so much of ourselves in our ‘gods’, we spend so much on them and
find our identity somehow so enmeshed with them that it is not surprising
that we defend them so vigorously.
All attachments/idols (“nailed to”) have this in common:
►Their ultimate success is in their seductive qualities.
Idolatry is always an “if…then” proposition. It offers us false promises and
creates false hopes.
Proverbs 23:29-35 (read)
Even though its destroying them, it views another drink as the remedy.
►They result in self-destruction and then offer themselves back to us as the
solutions
(i.e. more money, a different sexual partner (better relationships), a
stronger drink, etc.)
►They all deteriorate our freedoms and cause us to respond inhumanely...
they make us less than human.
No matter how developed we believe our faith to be, we all practice
some form of idolatry. By that, I mean that often we declare our love for
God, but we actively seek fulfillment in a host of things that have very
little to do with God. |
